Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-11-12

SiNSSiOo Will ldCc
The sugar product hereabouts is very
large, this district being one of the great
sources Of supply for Central Mexico. The
tourist should visit the Coahuixtla ha-
cienda, not far from the city, the property
of Senior Manuel Mendoza Cortina, and
the sugar-mills of Santa Ines Rabanillo,
belonging to the Robaldo brothers. The
hotels of Cuantla are the Halter" kept
by Texan Of that name, and the Nico-
las Zayas," run by a German-and it is
difficult to tell which is the worst.
In its day, sleepy old Cuantla has been
the
THEATER OF STIRRING EVENTS,
For here it was that Curate Morelos-Hi-
dalgo's immediate successor-shut himself
up with troop of insurgents, until Calleja,
the Spanish General, besieged the place so
effectively that the little party, IN dire ex-
tremity for want of food, abandoned the
position under the friendly cover of dark
ness. In the plaza, in front of the pa
rochial church, is great tree, which is
somehow connected with that noche trieste
of the patriot cure in 1872, for, like Cortez
at the capital some centuries before, he was
compelled TO retreat at night, after a gal
liant resistance of sixty-two days to the
siege by the Spanish army.
When the revolt broke out, in 1910,
Padre Jose Maria Morelos was curate
under Hidalgo, established at Nalladolid
capital of the State of Michoacan. He fol-
lowed his superior to the field, and after
Hidalgo's execution came to be general
issimo of The Mexican forces, and later to
have the name of his native city changed
from Vallodolid to Morelia in his honor,
and also to have this State named after
him.
Without doubt, Morelos had the military
gift. Born of humble parentage, he was
ambitious for learning beyond his station,
but was unable 20 attain it till late in life
Hardly had he gained his degrees from
the same college where Hidalgo was edu-
cated) when, Immediately after the latter's
execution, he sprang into his dead friends
place as leader of the revolutionary army
His defense of Cuantla is considered one
of the most glorious deeds of Mexican
history. 1t was Matamoras, the third in
the trio of priests, Morelos' intimate and
lieutenant, who broke the siege with a
hundred horse and aided his chiefs re-
treat. In due course Matamoras was cap
tured and shot, by no other than Iturbide,
the future Liberator," as his country
men now delight to call him, but who was
then in the Spanish forces To quote
bit of Mexican history, In the service of
Spain Iturbide had signalized himself by
his repeated victories over the insurgents,
and the excessive cruelty of which he
made use on frequent occasions" He
routed Matamoras at Puruapan, and put
him to death when prisoner of war. To
revenge this, Cure Morelos butchered two
hundred Spanish prisoners in cold blood.
Late one December afternoon, in 1915,
at San Crestobal Ecatapec, Morelos met
his fate. Courageous to the last, with his
bandit handkerchief still wound around
his head as when fighting the Spaniards,
this man-then just in the prime of life,
with the career all untried for which he
had so laboriously educated himself, de-
clared he was
COMMENTED TO DIE,
Since he had founded the beginning of an
independent Government. Kneeling be.
fore his executioners, he prayed: "Lord
if have done well, Thou knowest it; il
i'll, to thy infinite mercy | commend my
soul"
1t is curious that priests should have
taken such share in the struggle for in.
dependence, for the Liberal party, which
came into existence through their heroic
efforts, are the deadly foes of Catholicism
Their lives of sacrifice and tragic deaths
recall those holy warrior ecclesiastics of
the Middle Ages, who wore the secular as
often as the spiritual armor. In an old
convent of Cuantla, now adapted to use as
a railway station, is hall hung with pic
lures of Mexican heroes. Naturally, the
portrait of Padre Morelos is most promi-
nent in the State that is named in his
honor. In all his pictures he appears the
same, with the bold air of bandit chief
and red handkerchief tied around his
head. To the disinterested foreigner il
looks odd, typical of something curiously
illogical in the Mexican mind, that the
noted men of the past, to whatever party
they belonged, are canonized alike There
is the first lturbide, whom they shot as a
traitor; and Gonzalez, who certainly ought
to have met the same fate There is
Bravo, and Guerrero who shot Iturbide
and Matamoras whom Iturbide killed
There is Lerdo, whom Porfirio Diaz ban.
ished for the crime Of wishing to serve
more terms than one in the Presidential
office and Poririo himself, who has SC
manipulated legislation and intimidated
| Legislators that he has succeeded in making
4 bill pass both Houses of Congress, amend
| ing the Constitution so that he may enjoy
| the Presidential loaves and fishes for ar
indefinite period.
All these Caesars and Brutuses, with
dozens more, are especially honored il
the picture galleries, and smile upon each
other with greatest complacency. Verify
it seems as if some high court of inquiry
and review ought to be constituted for ap
portioning out the merits and dement's o
these dead worthless Iturbide's private
journal is interesting reading, and in i
his account of these revolutionary leaders
whom he was so active in exterminatng
is far from fattering. The Mexican ma
tional anthem most stirring and martha
air-invokes among other things the So
| cred memory of Iturbide. If Iturbide
whom they shot as traitor, deserved hi
fate, it seems much as if Americans SHOULD
invoke the sacred name of
| BENEDICT ARNOLD
In their Hail, We heroes, heaven-borl
band for Arnold also had rendered ex
cellent service to his country, and Their
was no better soldier than he before h
became unduly intimate with the British
A good deal of very queer pottery may
be found in Cuantla Amilpas-most of i
made in Cuernavaca, forty miles away l
is only common earthenware, but bits O
stone and shell are somehow impasted int
it, giving it the look of the old Roman
mosaics. One may also find in the mar
kets occasional pieces of remarkable iri
descent ware, but where it is made | d
not know The ware is rude, and the arti
Giles extremely thin and brittle, but tn
luster is the true Saracenic-the ancien
Cubic luster-shifting colors in changing
lights, ruby. green and blue. 1t is tn
genuine iridescence, like the tiles of tn
Alhambra. Is it possible that the long
lost art may have been preserved i
Mexico through all the centuries, brough
here by descendants of the Moors?
FANNIE B. WARD.
What Am i to Do?
The symptoms of Biliousness are unhaI
| pily but too well known They differ 4